Hello friends,
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood monk in dogs.
Welcome as we continue our walk.
Through the Psalms of Ascent and our pilgrimage with Jesus.
Those people who would have sung these psalms heading towards Jerusalem.
As we begin,
As always,
I invite you to take a moment to purposely bring yourself fully into this moment,
Mind,
Body,
And soul.
Consciously become still,
Allow yourself to settle into a comfortable position.
Let your shoulders soften,
Your breathing slow.
Take a breath in and out.
And as you breathe,
Just become aware of the presence of God.
The God who's been with you through every season.
The God who's held you through every struggle,
The God who remains faithful on every part of the journey.
And as we continue our pilgrimage through the Psalms of Ascents.
We've already travelled through many movements of the heart.
We've longed for peace,
Lifted our eyes towards God,
Remembered grace,
Learnt to trust,
Sown in tears,
Let go of our striving and effort and discovered the blessing in the ordinary rhythms of life.
Today the pilgrim faces a very difficult truth.
The journey with God doesn't mean that we'll never experience suffering.
Faithfulness doesn't make us immune from pain.
The path towards God has always passed through places of hardship.
And this psalm,
Psalm 129,
Is a song of perseverance.
It's a prayer of someone who's been hurt,
But not destroyed.
Someone who's suffered,
But hasn't surrendered their hope.
Someone who can look back and say,
I've been through so much,
But God has carried me.
And so listen to the words of Psalm 129.
And as always,
See which word or phrase stays with you as you hear the psalm for the first time.
Psalm 129.
Often have they attacked me from my youth,
Let Israel now say.
Often have they attacked me from my youth,
Yet they have not prevailed against me.
The plow is plowed on my backyard.
They made their furrows long.
The Lord is righteous.
He has cut the cords of the wicked.
May all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned backward.
Let them be like the grass on the housetops which withers before it grows up.
With which weepers do not fill their hands or binders of sheaves their arms.
While those who pass by do not say.
The blessing of the Lord be upon you.
We bless you in the name of the Lord.
So what words remained or settled within you?
Maybe it was,
Yet they have not prevailed against me.
Or the Lord is righteous.
Just let that word or phrase,
Whatever it happens to be,
Sit with you as we reflect today.
Now you'll have noticed that Psalm 129 doesn't begin by denying pain,
It names it from the outset.
Often have they attacked me.
And there's some wisdom in this,
I think.
A biblical tradition.
Never ask us to pretend that the suffering we experience isn't real.
And the psalmist has no easy answers to offer.
They don't say anything like it wasn't that bad or I should just move on.
They bring their wounds and they bring them into the presence of God.
And this really is one of the great gifts of the Psalms because they teach us that prayer isn't the place to hide our humanity away,
But the place where we bring our whole humanity,
Our joy,
Yes,
But also our grief,
Our anger,
Our questions and our wounds.
And the word for this is lament.
The Psalms teach us that we can lament because in the presence of God somehow these wounds,
These questions,
These lamentations are the places where God can begin to do healing in our lives.
Not as to that central movement of the psalm,
Yet they have not prevailed against me.
So again.
The Psalmist isn't pretending that.
.
.
There was no suffering.
The claim is that the suffering isn't the final word.
Pain comes,
But pain doesn't have to have the last word.
Fear comes.
But fear doesn't have to have the last word.
The wounds of life are very real,
But they don't define the whole story.
Let's listen to the psalm again.
And as you do.
Just gently reflect on your own journey.
Thinking about how some of these words might explain experiences that you've had.
Psalm 129.
Often have they attacked me from my youth,
Let Israel now say.
Often have they attacked me from my youth,
Yet they have not prevailed against me.
The plow is plowed on my back.
They made their furrows long.
The Lord is righteous.
He has cut the cords of the wicked.
May all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned backward.
Let them be like the grass on the housetops which withers before it grows up.
With which weepers do not fill their hands.
Or binders of sheaves their arms.
While those who pass by do not say.
The blessing of the Lord be upon you.
We bless you in the name of the Lord.
So what experiences have shaped you?
And what challenges have left their mark and what seasons have tested your faith,
Your courage and your hope.
The truth is,
Every single one of us carries scars.
Some are visible,
But I think most of them are often hidden.
Remember a scar is just a reminder of where we've been hurt.
And it's a testimony that healing has taken place.
The Christian story is centred on that mystery.
The risen Christ still carries wounds.
Have you ever thought about that?
The resurrection doesn't remove the marks of suffering.
Jesus in his resurrected body still has nail holes in his hands and feet.
And an open side.
But while resurrection doesn't erase those marks of suffering,
It transforms them.
The wounds become signs of love.
And maybe.
.
.
This is what the pilgrim learns along the way,
That we don't walk towards God because we've never been broken,
But we walk towards God.
Because God meets us precisely in our brokenness.
Let's listen one more time,
And this time,
Hear the psalm as a prayer of every person who's endured hardship and yet still chooses hope.
And just rest in that,
In the silence after the psalm,
For a little bit.
Psalm 129.
Often have they attacked me from my youth,
Let Israel now say.
Often have they attacked me from my youth,
Yet they have not prevailed against me.
The plow is plowed on my back.
They made their furrows long.
The Lord is righteous.
He has cut the cords of the wicked.
May all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned backward.
Let them be like the grass on the housetops which withers before it grows up.
With which weepers do not fill their hands or binders of sheaves their arms.
While those who pass by do not say.
The blessing of the Lord be upon you.
We bless you in the name of the Lord.
Let's prime.
God of faithfulness,
You know every wound we carry.
You know the struggles that we've faced.
You know the battles that others have never seen.
Thank you for remaining with us through every season.
When we remember painful experiences,
Give us compassion for ourselves.
When old wounds return,
Meet us with your healing presence.
When suffering's shaped us,
Help us remember that it doesn't define who we are.
Teach us the courage of the psalmist to tell the truth about our pain and still believe in your goodness.
May our scars become places where your grace can shine.
May our suffering become compassion.
May our perseverance become hope.
For others.
May we continue this pilgrimage.
Trusting that no darkness,
No hardship,
No wound can separate us.
From your faithful love and may grace,
Peace and love be with us and remain with us every step of the way today.
And always.
Grace and peace,
Friends.
Until tomorrow.
Bye for now.
